1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to the sale of one or more goods and/or services that will be delivered at a time other than when payment is made. More particularly, it relates to a system and a method for facilitating the resale of such goods or services.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is an established practice in several industries for merchants to sell goods or services in advance of their delivery. This is the situation for sporting events, music concerts, the airline tickets, books that have yet to be published, whether in electronic or hard copy form, or the latest model of a particular smart phone. These goods or services, that are sold before they are delivered, are referred to herein as forward-sold goods. Typically, a credit or debit card holder will be charged the price of the forward-sold good at the time of purchase.
Frequently, events occur before the goods or services are actually delivered that may have an impact upon the purchaser or may affect the desirability of the forward sold goods that are purchased. As a general example, a ticket holder may have an unplanned pressing engagement on the day of an event or may otherwise be indisposed. As a particular example, an opera ticket holder's child may become sick on the morning of the opera and the ticket holder can no longer be available to attend the event. Another example is a particular football game between two teams may have become important in deciding which team will go to a playoff. In this case, the desirability of the ticket and its value, which could not have been anticipated at the time of the original sale by the merchant, may have changed drastically. In yet another example, the smart phone that was preordered may have received unfavorable pre-release reviews, or a competitor may have announced the release of a more desirable model.
In all of these cases, it would be desirable to have a system for re-selling the goods or services so that the purchaser could recover at least a portion of, and possibly more than, the price paid.